Kicks Hobby Japan

Small but well-​stocked hobby store in the Northgate area of Seattle. Their prices are a little high considering the proliferation of online shops. I believe this is their only shop so you’d be supporting local business. I’ve bought small items from here for gifts. The staff has always been friendly and helpful. Parking can be limited if the Indonesian place is busy but you’ll be able to find something in their lot.

Kicks is ok for japanese toys pretty pricey, I went here looking for geki rangers and japanese transformers… I have bought from here in the past
but its getting more and more expensive… its like buying from ebay now days… you are being charged for the shipping on these toys… to bad for a loyal customer…

The only reason this place gets two stars is because of the fact that if they don’t have it in store, the owner will order it for you from Japan. He’d like to make you think he does it for no mark-​up, but you’d be wrong to believe him. I special-​ordered a very expensive model kit through this store. It took six weeks to get to the store (he promised I’d have it in two), his employees were incapable of answering my questions, and when the kit finally got into the store, I discovered it was a Chinese knock-​off, with inferior quality plastic, steel, and electronic components.
How do I know this? I bought the kit a year ago. When building it, the components had a propensity to shear and break, so lots of glue was necessary to keep the thing together (they don’t require glue). The screws would strip quicker than Betty Page. And now, a year later, I’ve discovered bubbling and fading in the plastic, which is NOT happening on similar models that are authentic.
I’m all about supporting local businesses, and I understand what a profit margin is. But if a business insists on not opening at their posted hours, high markup (let’s face it, animé in America is not a moneymaker), and they still provide inferior products, I’m sticking to the online stores or the international distributors in Japan. If you want good quality, avoid this store at all costs.

such an awesome store ran by some awesome people!

If you’re looking for anything game or hobby related that is imported from Japan, this is the place!
Kick’s has been around for more years than I can remember, and has always had cool stuff and knowledgeable and friendly staff.
They also have animé that you cant see anywhere else except in Japan.

Lots of toys crammed into a small space. They’ve got good stuff (I visit for the Pinky St dolls), but don’t always open/​close according to their posted hours. I had about a twenty minute wait for them to open once, when I arrived more than an hour after their posted time.

When I was young [sixth grade?], I used to rent subtitled animé from this store. When I was in the seventh grade or so, I distinctly remember buying the Pokemon Trading Card Game for my oh-​so-​awesome limited edition ice blue GameBoy Pocket. I bought it in Japanese. It was the greatest day of my life when I knew enough Japanese to play the aforementioned game. It was also nearly ten years later. I win, in the end, BWAHAHA!
Anyway, when we were looking for a copy of Jump! Super Stars for the DS we ended up at Kicks. Yeah, this was a few years ago… they didn’t have any copies. So one of the awesome clerks sold us his OWN copy at a used discount price. WTF, how amazing is that on the customer service scale? I’d go 20/​10, at least.
Although I’ve been shopping at this store for more than half my life now [wow have I really been a nerd THAT long?!] I’ve never had anything less than an excellent experience here. If I am anywhere near Kicks with a little bit of cash to blow, I always end up coming in – and I’m never disappointed =)

kicks! kicks ass… if your in to robots, model kit’s, robots, animé figures, robots, macross, super robots, and transformers (i am) check them out. for all out there looken for imported hobbies or just really cool looking toys to have in your house. check them out…

I don’t know the difference between Gundam and Robotech, but my husband sure does. And this place makes him extremely happy since it’s packed with all kinds of weird Animé/​manga/​whatever the heck this stuff is.
I like it because the guy who works here (owns the place?) is amazingly helpful. I just hand him my list and he takes me around the store filling my husband’s Japanese model kit desires. The sales guy knows I am out of my element, just like the people at Sephora know my husband’s out of his element when he goes there, but makes sure I have exactly what I need and nothing that I don’t. I’ve never felt pressured to buy something, and getting me to buy an extra Japanese do-​dad would be easy since I have no clue what I’m getting. Bottom line: my stupidity is not taken advantage of at Kicks. I respect that.
If you love animé stuff, you’ll love this place!

My kids said to give this place 5 stars because there was no way I was qualified to give an objective review. Brats. True, I only recognized a handful of things, like Inu Yasha, but I can say the people were really nice and conversed intelligently with my brats. They have games and toys and DVD’s for rent and magazines and most of this stuff is shipped directly from Japan. Animé/​manga heaven.